Hundreds of people in a former steel town in north-east England have been revealed to be directors of a range of pornography, dating, diet and travel websites.
An investigation by the Reuters news agency found that at least 429 residents of Consett, County Durham, had been or still were being paid to serve as directors of more than 1,000 shell companies.
People in the town were paid £50 cash to become directors, with a further £150 a year for forwarding company mail, in order to provide a range of online businesses with a UK address to meet requirements to trade in Europe.
Residents of the town told journalists they did not know what the companies did and had signed up to the scheme in order to make extra money.
Simon Dowson, who r…
Read the full article at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/25/hundreds-of-people-in-consett-co-durham-paid-to-be-shell-company-directors